Layoffs at the Times

by Editor
January 29, 2013 at 7:00 am

http://www.smartertimes.com/763/layoffs-at-the-times

A news article about staff reductions at the Times says they were "accomplished primarily through voluntary buyouts" and reports that a memo from the paper's executive editor, Jill Abramson, "indicated that layoffs were kept to a minimum." So how many layoffs, if any, were there? The Times article doesn't say.

It's hard to imagine that if the article had been about staff reductions at some other news organization or publicly traded company or civic institution in New York, the Times would have let executives get away with vague happy talk about how the layoffs were "kept to a minimum." Instead the paper would almost certainly have pressed hard for a specific number indicating how many layoffs there were, and, if the company refused to give a number, the Times would have reported that refusal.

If the Times is going to run news articles about its own personnel dealings, they should meet the same standards of accuracy and specific detail that the paper applies to its coverage of other companies. That may be unrealistic, but anything less is a double standard.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free smartertimes.com mailing list